Belarusians harvested a bounty of awards at the "Fakel" festival
Belarusian participants collected awards at the final stage of the fifth corporate festival "Fakel" (Torch) for amateur creative groups and performers of Gazprom's subsidiaries and organizations, as reported by a BELTA correspondent.
The award ceremony for the winners took place today in the "Vitebsk" concert hall. According to the festival's tradition, the special prize of the festival's organizing committee chairman was presented first. Alexander Bespalov, head of the information policy department of Belgazprombank OJSC, presented it to Vladimir Mayorov, General Director of Gazprom Transgaz Belarus OJSC.
"This celebration, which is still ongoing, has been organized by all of us. Thank you for appreciating the work done by Gazprom Transgaz Belarus. Thank you to all the guests who participated in creating the festive atmosphere and thanks to whom it took place," expressed Vladimir Mayorov.
Belarusian artists worthily represented Gazprom's structural unit and the country at "Fakel". The strict jury, chaired by People's Artist of Russia and laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation, Svyatoslav Belza, awarded first prize in the "Pop Vocal, Solo" nomination to Veronika Chernyavskaya, who captivated everyone with her lyrical ballad. Three silver awards were added to the tally of Belarusian Gazprom employees by the vocal ensemble "Novy Stil" (New Style) (nomination "Pop Vocal, Ensemble"), Elizaveta Zayats ("Folk Vocal, Solo"), and the exemplary dance ensemble "Vi-Za-Vi" ("Pop Choreography, Ensemble"). Bronze was won by Valery Stoma ("Pop Vocal, Solo").
Addressing the participants, Svyatoslav Belza emphasized that each festival brought something new, becoming larger in scale and revealing new colors in its palette each time. "We, the jury members and the audience, watched 127 performances. Based on the results, the judging panel awarded the maximum possible – 40 first prizes. This is one-third of all performers! You must agree, you cannot accuse us of being stingy."
However, the main intrigue of the festival – the names of the recipients of the three Grand Prix awards in their age categories – will be revealed only on the evening of May 19th at the gala concert in the Summer Amphitheater.
The Gazprom corporate festival "Fakel" has been held every two years for ten years in regions where the company has structural divisions. From May 13 to 19, the final round of the V corporate festival is taking place in Vitebsk.